ESPI 10.29 Studios Driven By Duality

"The SSL Duality was the first and only choice"

MAZATLAN, MEXICO – Situated at the Marina Mazatlan, singer/songwriter Isidro Espinoza Paz's newly-constructed ESPI 10.29 Studios showcases an SSL Duality at the heart of its main control room. The leader of the regional Mexican "banda" genre, Espinoza (whose fans have nicknamed "Espi") has penned songs for well-known artists including Banda Cuisillos, La Adictiva de San José Mesillas, La Arrolladora Banda el Limón, Jenni Rivera, Chuy Lizarraga, Adair Elizalde, El Potro de Sinaloa, Sergio Vega, Calibre 50, Montez de Durango, La MS, El Chapo de Sinaloa, Duelo, Thalía and others.
A Latin Grammy Award-nominated artist whose single El Proximo Viernes (Next Friday) reached #14 on Billboard Magazine's "Hot Latin Tracks" chart, Espinoza has been using ESPI 10.29 Studios to work on his own forthcoming new material, as well as for producing projects for other local acts, which will be released through his newly-formed record label. The multi-room studio offers complete residential accommodations including three bedrooms, a full kitchen, and lounge aswell as a corporate office for Paz's new label.

Conceived from the ground up by Horacio Malvicino at Malvicino Design Group as a completely new structure, ESPI 10.29 Studios features two control rooms, three iso booths and a main studio area. Audio Control Room A is the larger of the two control rooms and is home to the freshly-installed Duality. Studio Manager Beatriz Careaga reveals the path that led to purchasing the Duality this past March: "When making the decision to buy a console for the brand new facility, we spoke at length with Horacio. We agreed that the Duality was the first and only choice. It's the obvious transition from the great sounds of the SSL 9000 Series, providing us with the combination of a fantastic analogue sound with the most practical workstation control."

The Duality is part of a first-class roster of gear that has been installed in Control Room A, which also includes the SSL X-Rack as well as outboard equipment from Manley, Universal Audio, EMI, Lexicon, API, Empirical Labs, and Bricasti. Studio monitors in this room are from Neumann (KH310 and KH810) and Oceanway® Audio (HR2). "The Studio has a Pro Tools HDX-3 system with three Avid HD I/O interfaces and Avid Sync," reveals Careaga. "It also has two Studer A827 Gold Edition 24-track analogue tape machines. Banda music requires a warm sound and the Duality is the only console that brings that to the table. It took no time for Isidro to get used to the sound of the new console, and our clients are also in love with it. This is the biggest facility in the area, and probably one of the most advanced in Mexico. Everybody wants to come in and record here.

"The console is very intuitive and operation is extremely simple to accomplish," continues Careaga. "SSL's Commissioning Engineer Phil Scholes spent two days training our engineers, Enrique Mendivil (Staff Engineer) and Arturo Quintana Ochoa (Chief Engineer). The process was quick and easy. On the third day, Arturo was already cutting tracks for Espinoza's upcoming album in a studio filled with 20 musicians. The VHD mic preamp makes a huge difference in the sound of our recordings. After working ‘in-the-box' for so many years, there is no need for external microphone preamps."
"When we were consulting with Horacio," says Careaga "we visited a few of the facilities that he designed in the U.S. that also housed SSL Duality consoles, and they sounded amazing. We were ready for our own and we finally got it. There are no words to express how happy we are with the Duality."